Shot a couple videos of The Dalton Gang Hideout
in Meade, Kansas yesterday .....
@ http://www.youtube.com/user/TrulyVintageOnDaRoad
Jim
Interesting, never learned about the real Dalton brothers until today, but had a lot of fun with their fictional cousins as a kid http://alturl.com/aje2d
There is also a Ford Dealer in an old brick bldg in Meade.
Here's where the James Bros hung out in the '60's That would be 1860's and they would be Jesse and Frank James. Cabin is on my property!
John, do tell more - a history buff, especially Civil War. With a leaning towards the South. Done allot of reading about Guerrilla's - The James boys,Youngers.
My grandfather, who was born in Elgin, Oklahoma, used to me that his father's farm was next to Frank James' in Fletcher. Fletcher is only four minutes away from Elgin. He also used to say that and one of his relatives, James Gibson, died with the Quantrill Raiders, a group of vigilantes that the James brothers were involved with during the Civil War.
John,
It must nice to have a piece of history in your back yard. Probably why we all like old cars we all tend to gravitate to history items.
Would the whole "James Gang" fit into just two cars?
Please tell me is the station wagon Frank or Jesse' I thought they would be more into SUV's for fast get-a-ways on rough ground.
History or Nat Geo channel showed a program on the Raiders a few months back. Those killers should never have been given any positive publicity. The media back then was no better than it is today.
rdr
The James boys came west after the death of their Father, a Baptist missionary in the gold fields of California (dysentery).
They traveled West to visit their uncle D.W. James who helped found the new town of El Paso De Robles. The boys, Frank then later Jesse discovered the healing waters of the area which helped them heal from wounds received during a botched robbery in the South. As word spread that D.W. was harboring the outlaws in the new town, he was pressured to move the boys out to one of his cattle holdings in a remote area called Willow Creek. The boys holed up in the little cabin for about 18 months.
The little cabin was relocated a quarter mile to the property I now own, back in the 1880's. The cabin was authenticated by the James foundation in 2001, by Eric James and several of his family members.
The cabin is now a private residence which I have renovated over the last 12 years. It is a one wall redwood vertical plank structure which sits on a stone foundation. Very fun to own a piece of history!
You've probably seen a Western where the bad guys are coming to town and everybody's scared. Sometimes that makes for a good movie, like High Noon, but history shows us otherwise. What happened to the James gang at Northfield and the Daltons at Coffeyville reminds us that those small town farmers and merchants were mostly Civil War vets, well acquainted with hearing bullets whistling by their ears, and they were perfectly willing and able to administer a lead injection when the occasion called for it.
Yep they were bad men, but those were bad times. They were darn good at their trade or they would of never survived as long as they did. Lot's of terrible stuff was the norm in the area in those times. I have never read anything about them being in California, thought Texas was about as far west has they came. Very interesting, thanks John.
Tom, Eric James has a very interesting web site... google James Foundation. Eric tells the story of Jesse and Frank in the west, as well as discovering his ancestors using DNA testing. - John
Thanks John, well do - Tom.